


To Grow From The Grass I Love

by the_interuniversal_geometer



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: For Want of a Nail, Hufflepuff Harry Potter, Hufflepuff Neville Longbottom, Hufflepuff Pride, I had some serious Hufflepuff feels while writing this, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Learning Disabilities, Protective Harry, Research, and of a better support structure, the power of FRIENDSHIP!
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-02
Updated: 2020-07-02
Packaged: 2021-03-04 22:41:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,776
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25024084
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_interuniversal_geometer/pseuds/the_interuniversal_geometer
Summary: What if Harry had gone with Neville to find Trevor on the train? A Hufflepuff!Harry and Hufflepuff!Neville au.
Relationships: Hermione Granger & Neville Longbottom & Harry Potter, Neville Longbottom & Harry Potter, Neville Longbottom/Harry Potter
Comments: 23
Kudos: 114





	To Grow From The Grass I Love

**Author's Note:**

> This fic originally began in discord when I was relistening to Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone. I had a desperate need for someone to hear Neville telling the story of how his family kept almost killing him and say 'this isn't right', and that someone was Harry. The title is from the poem 'Song of Myself' by Walt Whitman. Thanks to Cass for betaing the first chapter!

Harry gets on the train and takes a seat and Ron joins him but when Harry sees a crying boy looking for his toad he offers to go look with him. They don’t find Trevor but Neville talks about how he was so worried he was going to be a squib and when they found out he was a wizard they gave him a toad, so it means a lot because it’s a symbol of him being a wizard. Harry asks how they found out he was a wizard so Neville tells him. 

Neville tells him the story of how his Great Uncle Algie hoisted him out of the window by his ankle and dropped him as well as the numerous other stories of almost drownings and various other “tests” of his magic. Neville doesn’t think there’s anything unusual about this story so Harry wonders if this is normal, if this is just how you act toward a kid who you think is a squib; try and “test” their magic and if they die, well no great loss because they were a squib.

After Neville tells Harry this he gets very upset. Why would someone make anyone, but especially his new friend (his first friend) feel like this? Almost kill him? So after Neville tells him the story Harry promises himself that he’ll protect this boy because he knows what it’s like to live with people who hate you for who you are.

So in this story Neville goes into Hufflepuff. When the Sorting Hat goes on Harry’s head it tells him that he’s destined for greatness but also that he’s protective and would do well surrounded by a community and with more friends than he can count, so Harry chooses Hufflepuff. It’s unexpected maybe, people will look at him funny because _‘who would have expected the Savior of the Wizarding World to be a duffer?’_ But Harry’s happy with his newfound friends and when Neville tells the story of how he found out he was a wizard later at dinner people actually listen and someone goes to a prefect because _‘it isn’t right’_ and ‘ _we have to protect our own.’_

People always say that Slytherin have to protect their own but Slytherin isn’t the house of friendship, of community, it isn’t the house that everyone else looks down at and sometimes can’t even figure out what they’re even there for. You know, Gryffindor for the brave kids, Ravenclaw for the smart kids, Slytherin for the evil kids, and Hufflepuff for everyone else. Well if Hufflepuff takes everyone else then they’ll damn well make sure they feel safe and like they belong, because everyone deserves a family even if they’re born into a crappy one. So Harry and Neville go into Hufflepuff and they make friends! Harry has more than two friends in Hufflepuff, more than just Neville, but Neville is still his first friend, his best friend.

When Neville gets his remembrall and his face falls because he’s _already forgotten something_. Harry tells him not to worry because if it were important Harry would help him remember. Honestly it’s pretty cruel to give a kid who has problems with memory something that just tells them they’ve forgotten something. Neville obviously has learning difficulties and problems with memory so Harry helps Neville with classwork and studying. Harry has always done poorly in school because he couldn’t do better than Dudley and it’s very hard to do well when you’re locked in a cupboard, but he’s at Hogwarts now so he can at least try.

There’s no study tips for students in Gryffindor but in Hufflepuff they help each other. They’re not as smart as Ravenclaws (they’re told) but they work the hardest, and anyone can work hard. So Harry and Neville work hard, they work hard with the help of students who came before them, who’ve perfected studying to get the most out of your time even if you’re not naturally good at things.

And when Neville falls off his broom Harry picks off his remembrall from the grass and puts it in his pocket and takes Neville to the hospital wing. He learns flying later and leads Hufflepuff to victory for many years in a row but not in his first year.

When the troll comes Harry hears about the girl who’s absent from Gryffindor and takes it upon himself to go find her (he doesn’t know her but he knows being bullied for being different, and this is also the girl who went with them to find Trevor on the train so she can’t be all that bad and this is Harry, of course he doesn’t trust adults) so he takes Neville and they go to find Hermione. When they find her they're able to save her of course and in the process become friends with the Gryffindor who should have been in Ravenclaw.

When Hermione scolds them for not studying hard enough Harry pulls her aside and tells her that it's hard for Neville, it's hard for him, and they try but they're just not as smart as her, so she helps them study and learns to be a bit more forgiving. Draco still challenges Harry to duel, making fun of him for being a duffer and friends with Neville and Harry goes, wanting to defend his friend and his new house, his new home. When Harry shows up in the trophy room with Neville as his second and Draco doesn't show up they end up in the third floor corridor and find a three-headed dog.

When they go to see Hagrid they ask about him, because of course Harry introduced Neville to Hagrid, he's big and friendly and warm and is Harry's friend. They go to Hagrid’s hut, and he's got a dragon egg and Hagrid's hut is made of thatch and wood and he SHOULD NOT have a dragon, Harry explains, so they go to the library (with Hermione) and do some research. When they go to the library they come across a book with dragon reserves who will take dragons and they write to them and who is the correspondent but Charlie Weasley.

Charlie arranges things so they can take him up to the astronomy tower and drop the dragon off with his friends. When they tell Hagrid about taking the dragon to Charlie, Hagrid cries of course but he gives them the dragon to take. Draco hears this and tells Snape, who tells Sprout, who catches them and sends them to detention. Even so, Neville is also proving (to himself) that he's brave (and he doesn't need to be or to prove himself to Harry but he becomes more confident). They do the whole detention thing and it's bad, yeah? They see a dead unicorn and are rightfully horrified, and then they see something eating the unicorn.

In this story Snape is still nasty and horrible to Harry and Neville and doubly so when they are working together because it's easy to pick on children when you're a bitter teacher, especially children who won't go to another professor because they're used to always being left to fend for themselves. They suspect Snape because he's mean and makes Harry's scar hurt (at least Harry thought it was him for a while) and really that's as good a reason as any to suspect a teacher. They have other reasons but the quidditch incident didn't happen in this story so of course they still suspect Snape, and he doesn't give them any reason not to.

When Harry goes to the Mirror of Erised he sees himself and his family but he also sees Neville and his parents too: Harry sees himself surrounded by people he loves. Of course Neville has told Harry what happened to his parents: Harry asked why he wasn't living with them and Neville told him, even showed him a picture. It’s pretty poetic, two orphans banding together against the world, against their shitty adoptive families. Neville sees the same thing too: a world where Voldemort never existed, where they were never separated from their parents. 

Dumbledore tells Harry that looking too long at the mirror, for things you can never have, can be dangerous, but that's only half right. What Harry sees isn't just representative of the past— of a past where Voldemort never was— it looks to the future, one where Neville and he can make their own families, their own choices. That's what Harry takes away from it.

After this he goes to a prefect and asks _‘what can be done if your family mistreats you?’_ Of course he's asking for Neville because he's used to the Dursleys, used to what living with them is like, but he doesn't want his friend to go back to a family where they try to kill him and then tell him that it's for his own good. He gets told that they can watch and wait but ultimately nothing can be done (especially not to take the heir to Noble and Most Ancient House away from his family).

So Harry researches; he goes to the library and just reads through book after book. He has at least two books open at once— a book and a dictionary (and sometimes another dictionary, for the really dense books)— and he slowly makes his way through legal books and case law, slowly making notes in a notebook called "for the future". But Hufflepuffs are hard workers, so he works hard and he gets through chapters then whole books eventually, and Harry learns about muggle and magical case law, and about what constitutes child abuse and what can be done about it.

Meanwhile the year is ending and they think that Snape is going to make a move on the Philosopher's Stone soon, so one night, Harry, Neville, and Hermione (they arrange for her to meet them in the Hufflepuff common room because anyone can get into the Hufflepuff common room, anyone is welcome) make their way into the third floor corridor room and it goes mostly the same (though Neville gets knocked out in the chess game and shows his expertise with the Devil's Snare).

When Harry wakes up in the hospital wing, Hermione and Neville are there waiting for him, along with basically the entirety of the first year Hufflepuffs and a number of Hufflepuffs from other years as well. Later on at the end of year feast, Hufflepuff wins the house cup for the first time in many, many years. The year ends with Harry and Neville (and Hermione) all promising to write to each other over the summer holidays.


End file.
